Tuesday Tunes 214: Gardens And Gardening

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Today’s theme was prompted a couple of weeks ago when I was in a comments chat with Nancy on one of her posts. She won’t see this, as she is taking a break after surgery: it went well and she is now home again and on the road to recovery. I wish her well and hope to see her back here again soon. I don’t recall exactly how we got there, but remember saying to her that she had prompted a thought, and here we are. So if you don’t like the idea of songs on gardens and gardening just blame Nancy – she’ll never know!

A couple of songs sprang to mind very quickly when I thought of doing this, and this was the first:

Gardening At Night was a track on R.E.M’s first ever release, apart from an indie label issue of Radio Free Europe in 1981. It was on a five song EP entitled Chronic Town, which came out in August 1982 but, as far as I can tell, didn’t make the charts anywhere. The EP as a whole has since been included on several compilation albums and is a very good start to what became a massively successful career. I rate the band highly – one of my favourites.

I’ve played this next one before, when I ran a set of party songs in this series a couple of years ago. Nothing like making the most of a two word title, is there!

Ricky Nelson had been a teen pop idol from his early days, and had many hits in the US and also here in the UK. Despite changing his recording name to Rick Nelson on his 21st birthday (in 1961) his childhood nickname was hard to shake off, as you can see from this video – both versions are there! He formed The Stone Canyon Band in 1969, and Garden Party became a surprise hit for them in 1972, reaching #6 in the US, #1 in Canada and #41 in the UK – his first hit here for nine years, and his last until a re-release of Hello Mary Lou was a minor hit in 1991. It was also the title track of an album which reached #32 in the US. I’ve always liked its gentle feel, and the way he wrote it in response to being booed at a concert, though it is thought that the boos were actually directed at police actions at the event, not at him. He died in 1985 at just 45 in a plane crash. By then his music career was on the wane but he was still playing shows: the crash was on the way to a performance at a New Year’s Eve event. A sad way to go.

I was unlikely to get through a set of garden songs without going into folk music, was I? And true to form, guess what’s next:

As the video shows, that was a performance on the fabulous TV series Transatlantic Sessions, which brings together musicians from both sides of the Atlantic to make music together, usually in a Scottish country house with wonderful views. The musicianship is excellent, and these have been among my favourite shows of the past twenty years or so. This one is from episode 7 of season 2, broadcast in 1998, and features the beautiful voices of Maura O’Connell and Karen Matheson on Down By The Sally Gardens. The lyrics are actually a poem by William Butler Yeats, published in The Wanderings of Oisin and Other Poems in 1889: they were first set to music in 1909 and have been played by many. Reflecting the fact that Yeats was Irish many of these have been from Irish musicians, though others have taken it on too. As examples, Clannad have done a version, but you can also find one by Emma Thompson in the movie Children Act. This one is really beautiful, and well worth including today.

As well as folk music I’ll also take any excuse to play something by The Boss:

Bruce Springsteen released Secret Garden as a single in April 1995, after it had appeared as a previously unreleased bonus track on his Greatest Hits album, which had come out that February. It wasn’t hugely successful, peaking at #63 in the US and at #44 in the UK, though it did best in Canada where it reached #7. It was re-released in 1997 after it had been on the soundtrack of the Jerry Maguire movie, and fared better second time round, making #19 in the US and #17 in the UK, though not a hit in Canada that time. Amongst all of the uptempo songs for which he is probably best known Bruce has given us many more reflective tunes, like this one. I like it.

Today’s closing song is one that regular readers will not be in the least surprised to see. One of my favourite bands, with a little bit of fun and an unofficial cartoon to match:

You probably don’t need me to tell you that Octopus’s Garden was a track on the Beatles’ Abbey Road album, released in September 1969 and topping the charts in the UK, the US, and just about everywhere else, selling more than 31m copies worldwide. The song was written by Ringo, and was his second (and last) solo composition released on an album by the band. It was inspired by a trip with his family to Sardinia aboard Peter Sellers’ yacht after Ringo left the band for two weeks during the recording sessions for the White Album. Ringo received a full songwriting credit and composed most of the lyrics, although the song’s melodic structure was partly written in the studio by George. I’ve aways liked it as a fun little song, which was easy to sing along to, and this animation is a perfect fit for it.

I said that would be the final song, as I’ve hit my quota of five for the day. But all the way through this I’ve had a nagging feeling that I ought to include a version of a traditional English folk song called Country Gardens, which dates as far back as 1728. It was scored for piano by Percy Grainger in 1918, since when there have been numerous recordings. You may well recognise it from the version known as English Country Garden by Jimmie Rodgers – an American stamping on our heritage, but that didn’t stop him getting to #5 with it here in 1962. In the end I decided to give you a bonus song today of an instrumental version, as a kind of homage to Grainger. But not much of one:

Always good to have a bit of The Muppets, I think. At which point it is time to take my leave. Have a great week, and I’ll see you again soon 😊🎶

 

41 thoughts on “Tuesday Tunes 214: Gardens And Gardening”

  4. A runaway for me this week. I love the Springsteen song. It’s hard for me to understand why that tune didn’t do better on the charts. I also liked the movie Jerry Maguire. I don’t know if you ever saw it because it’s a love story about a sports agent, the woman who believes in him, and American football. I know you’re partial to “real football.” I will always remember the “You had me at hello” line the actress delivers after Tom Cruise speaks in the the living room in front of the ladies from the women’s group. 1st runner-up to REM, though I’d never heard that tune before.

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    • I thought those might be the two for you. I don’t understand those chart placings either – I’d have expected top ten at least. I saw the movie on TV many years ago – if I recall correctly I quite enjoyed it, even if it wasn’t about a proper sport 😉

      The REM one has gone under the radar for most, but I’ve always liked it. Interesting to see from an early song how they already had their signature style.

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  7. Nice choices for garden songs my favorite being the cute one Octpuses Garden. I also enjoy the popular country standard Rose Garden by Lynn Anderson where she lets the guy know she never promised him a rose garden,

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    • Thank you, I’m glad you liked them. That is a cute video, isn’t it.

      I thought very briefly about Lynn Anderson but I’m afraid that isn’t really my thing. A good fit for the theme, I grant you 😊

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